Page 27 of In It for the Long Ride

He shook his head.

“It took a while.” He sighed.

“You thought I gave up on you,” I barely found my voice.

“I was a scared fucking kid, Daisy.” He laughed, in a way that broke my heart. “I was nineteen when I went in.”

I worried my lip and gave a slow nod, “Four long years.”

He looked me over and smiled, “Yeah.”

“Carl, don’t read those letters. Burn them.”

He side-eyed me with a funny smile. “I’m betting your heart and soul is on them pages, why would I burn that?”

“Because they’re not love letters. They’re the truth.” I held his gaze, and steeled myself as I waited for the coldness to creep into his eyes, when I blurted out. “He would have been three when you came home.”

His brows subtly shifted, but to his credit, he didn’t react.

Neither in anger nor any other extreme.

“You were pregnant?”

I took a shuddery breath and slowly nodded.

“You went to some… clinic place or something?” He frowned and his hand covered mine.

“No. My father dragged me to the church. There might be some catholic people that had abortions behind closed doors back then, but my father wasn’t about to let me be one of them.”

“Rich always was stern and pious,” Carl recalled my father. “I’m sorry you had to face him and all of it alone.”

We sat there, holding hands and reflecting on all of it. At least I was. After a while, he brought my hand up and kissed my knuckles.

“I always wondered; I knew it had to be something.” The smile lines around his eyes tightened.

“What?”

“The reason you hated me.” He laughed.

I reached up and slid my hand along his stubbled jaw, forcing him to look at me. He swallowed hard and his eyes met mine.

“I don’t think I ever hated you, even when I wanted to.”

His mouth twitched and a gleam filled his hazel eyes, “Then why haven’t you kissed me again?”

The man shocked the words right out of me, and when I didn’t recover quickly enough, he began to gravitate toward me. His breath was sweet like that chewing gum, he was forever working and his lips were so familiar. I melted against them and returned his kiss like I’d been waiting decades to do it. We were young again, my arm slowly sliding over his shoulder to crook behind his neck while he grabbed my hips and shifted me around until I was straddling him. His hands anchored my hips and the longer we kissed, the more comfortable they got. We must have traded a thousand little kisses before his hands finally found my ass and I heard that throat clear behind us.

I jerked violently, and only managed to rock my body into Carl’s as I struggled to turn and see who had caught us.

Carl's grip on my backside lessened, but he didn’t move or let go.

“Phone call,” Eric coughed, he had my cell phone extended, so we could see the speakerphone option was enabled.

Unfortunately, in my flustered state, I didn’t immediately recognize that. I squirmed against Carl, who kept a caveman grip on my thighs.

“Is that my phone? Damn it, where is Blaze?” I protested.

“Didn’t get no squirrel. He’s outside crunching the cans we shot the hell out of.” Eric explained, before smirking, “Besides, his mother is a biker queen and his auntie is the reigning pole dancing champion of Maryette County, I doubt he’d be too scandalized to see–”

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